


Nice to Meet You

by agoodpersonrose



Series: Nice To Meet You [11]
Category: Schitt's Creek
Genre: Canon Compliant, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Husbands, M/M, Post-Canon, Series Finale, Short & Sweet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-19
Updated: 2020-06-19
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:28:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,165
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24806236
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/agoodpersonrose/pseuds/agoodpersonrose
Summary: “Do you ever think about what would have happened if we hadn’t met that day at Ray’s?”Patrick and David talk about all the ways they could have met.
Relationships: Patrick Brewer/David Rose
Series: Nice To Meet You [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1768825
Comments: 45
Kudos: 205





	Nice to Meet You

**Author's Note:**

> This is the final instalment of the 'Meet-Cute' stories I was writing. 
> 
> I wanted to tie it up in a nice bow and I put it at the end so that all the individual works should be read as real AU's. 
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

It’s a Thursday. David always liked Thursday at the store; it was vendor pick-up day so either he or Patrick would disappear for a couple of hours, returning laden with boxes and well fed by the various local craftspeople and bakers eager to dish out their homemade treats.

Today it was Patrick’s turn to take their car (a blue Sedan- bought to replace the family car which had been left behind after the Roses had vacated, and Patrick’s own piece of scrap they had been constantly sending to the shop leading up to the wedding). He returned, victorious from a successful day spent on various different farms; tasting peanut butter squares, and different compotes and jams.

Patrick always dresses down on a Thursday such as this; he does a lot of running around and heavy lifting. That combined with the humid autumn weather leaves him sweaty and red-faced as he carries boxes from the car into the store, stopping to kiss David’s cheek, or neck, or shoulder every time he passes.

“I brought you a bagel from the Lawrence’s.” He says as he brings in the final box, chucking a paper bag unceremoniously onto the counter and placing a warm hand on the small of David’s back. David squirms away from it, because of course he does, whining about the combination of sweat and Peruvian wool as Patrick leans in to finally press a quick kiss on David’s lips.

Kissing is like that now; the desperation of their early relationship, and their honeymoon phase gone, leaving in its wake a familiar ease to their interactions. Instead of the kisses being overwhelming, now they are a reflex; not even thought about, to greet each other and to say goodbye, to say thank you, and sometimes just to be close to each other.

“Mm, thank you for the bagel.” David says, reaching for it to tear off a piece and stuff in his mouth.

“Have you had a good day so far?”

“Not bad; busy, but it’s been okay. I’m glad you’re back though.”

These are things that David says now; _I’m glad you’re back, I missed you, I love you._ They’re easy, and they’re true, and instead of being met with scorn and rejection as he had previously associated them, they are met with soft open eyes, and a smirk. If he’s very lucky, Patrick will even reward him for his openness with a kiss, or a small gift of appreciation.

This time, he just hums and hooks his head over David’s shoulder, but that’s okay because his mouth is currently full of a delicious savoury bagel.

“If you want to you can take a break; I can take over here for a while.”

Patrick has his back; they balance each other out, each taking over for the other. It’s predictable, but it’s perfect. David couldn’t want for anything more.

That evening, however, they are settling down on the couch to watch a movie when Patrick drops a bombshell.

“Do you ever think about what would have happened if we hadn’t met that day at Ray’s?”

David immediately freezes, tenses up and moves away under the guise of reaching for the popcorn bowl on the coffee table in front of them. “I- No. Why- Why would you even be thinking about that?”

Patrick is un-phased, having not noticed the panic in David’s expression, leaning back with his arm along the back of the couch for David to slip under as they always do. “I don’t know- I was just thinking about it today.”

“That’s a horrible thing to think about. Why are you thinking about never having met me?”

David is genuinely upset about it, and he lets it show, sitting back away from Patrick’s open and prepared embrace, causing his husband to look up in confusion.

“Oh, David. That’s not what I was saying.” He leans in to place his hands on his knees and gain his attention. “No- Stop, not at all. I was just- imagine all the ways we could have met if we didn’t meet at Ray’s. Maybe it wouldn’t have taken me so long to tell you how I felt if we weren’t meeting in a professional environment.”

And David smiles, and rolls his eyes at the hypotheticals, but lets Patrick tug him back into his warm embrace.

“I think I probably would have hired you at some point.” David mumbles into his chest as the credits to What a Girl Wants run down the screen. It wasn’t Patrick’s first choice of movie and he’s an expert in telling David no, but he never wants to when it comes to things that make his husband light up in excitement like this does.

“Hmm?”

“If we hadn’t met at Ray’s, I think I would have hired you for the business some other way.”

Patrick scoffs, pulling David up by the hand to go to the kitchen, filling and clicking on the electric kettle for tea whilst David slips onto one of the bar stools at the counter.

“What? What’s wrong with that?”

“Is that the best you can come up with?” Patrick asks, turning to lean against the sink and tip his head at David thoughtfully.

“It’s the most realistic.” David grumbles. “And at least that way we still would have fallen in love in the end.”

“Why do you think that?”

“Because it’s not that different to what really happened; I would have been annoyed yet charmed by you at our initial meeting, hired you, and then one day you would ask me out on a maybe-date, and I would say yes.”

He accepts the mug of tea Patrick hands him and looks at it thoughtfully. Patrick always makes him tea; chamomile in the evening to help him sleep. He accepts the gesture, but generally ends up switching their mugs when Patrick is in the bathroom, so he doesn’t have to drink it. The tea is glorified gritty water, and he doesn’t need it to sleep; he sleeps just fine with the sounds of his husband’s deep breathing next to him, and the small points of contact where their hands brush each other and feet nudge under the covers. Patrick probably knows that he doesn’t drink it since his is always magically re-filled when he comes back, but they keep up the charade anyway.

Patrick is looking sad now, and David tries to backtrack through the conversation to work out what he’s said.

“David, I would have fallen in love with you in every universe.”

“You don’t know that.”

Patrick steps around the kitchen island and slots himself between David’s sweatpants-clad thighs, his hands drumming a pattern along his shoulders.

“Yes, I do- Some things are just meant to be, David.”

How can he argue with that? When Patrick is being so sincere and so genuine; like he really believes what he’s saying. David loves to argue with Patrick when it winds him up, but this is too fond, too important to oppose.

“Okay,” he says softly, and the conversation is ended. They head up to bed with no more mention of the hypotheticals.

***

These stories become like a game to them; traded in the moonlight, facing each other under the covers with their heads on one pillow.

“Maybe we would have met on a night out.” Patrick says one night, “I would have seen you across the room and we might have danced together.”

“Where would that even happen?”

“The Wobbly Elm of course,” Patrick props himself up on his elbow and leans in, “I would have taken you to a dark corner and had my way with you.”

“I can’t believe you are reducing out marriage to dirty bar sex.” David says with a sniff of indignation, but accepts the kisses offered and holds Patrick by the back of the neck to stop him from retreating.

“Okay so maybe not sex; I probably wouldn’t have been ready for that. But you would have been the best kiss of my life and I would have found you again.”

“Oh, okay.”

David pulls away after Patrick sweeps his tongue into his mouth; knowing that there will be no more conversation this evening if he lets him continue.

“Maybe--” He tries to join in on Patrick’s imaginative stories, “I had tinder for a while when I first moved here. Maybe we would have met on there.”

Patrick hums in approval. “Well; in that case maybe we would have had sex. I had it for a while too but that was before we met at Ray’s. Maybe we hooked up and then met at the meeting.”

“What do they say about mixing business and pleasure?” David teases, as Patrick moves to start pressing sweet kisses into his neck.

“I’ve never found an issue with it. Everything would be the same then except it would be all sped up.”

“Sped up? Now that’s something I can get behind.”

***

Jocelyn comes into the store too often. Granted, she always buys something, and at least she pays; unlike Stevie or the rest of David’s family. But she talks too much.

“-- and I said to him that it could be romantic! But I think he’s too afraid of heights; plus, he’s scared the harness is going to permanently damage his--”

“Here’s the receipt Jocelyn!” David all but yells to stop himself from hearing the rest of the sentence, and Patrick turns around to smirk at him from where he is restocking the candles.

She leaves with little fuss, but David already knew what was coming.

“Hey, there’s an idea.” Patrick says, sauntering towards him with a predatory expression on his face.

David hums in recognition and winces, “Oh really? What would that be?”

“Maybe we would have met on a tree climbing course.”

David slumps into his husbands’ embrace in resignation and raises his arms to wrap around his neck. “Okay, and what would I possibly be doing at a tree-climbing course if it wasn’t to try and impress you.”

“Impress me? Is that really what happened that day?”

“An attempt was made.”

“Well, when I first moved here Alexis was all upset about Ted, right? Maybe she would have dragged you there with Stevie.”

“And what, tell me, would you be doing there?”

“Well, Ray suggested company bonding exercises. Maybe we would have gone together.”

David can’t help but laugh at that. “Mm, so what? You see me clinging to the rope course thirty feet in the air, yelling at Alexis, and fall in love with me there and then?”

“Not straight away, probably once I had come to help you on one and felt your body against mine. Perhaps we could do a zip-line together at the end, and I’d clip myself in behind you--” he punctuates this point by slipping away from David to wrap his arms around his waist from behind and press his hips against David’s ass.

“That’s ridiculous- They’d never have a zip-line for two people in the first place. Also, that’s about as likely as if we met whilst you were on one of your gay-panic hikes.”

“They wouldn’t have been gay panic hikes if I didn’t know you yet, David. They’d just be panic hikes. That’s a good suggestion though. Maybe you broke your ankle and I came to the rescue.”

“Why do I have to be the damsel in distress? You’re the one that injured yourself on the proposal hike.”

Patrick snorts and rubs his nose against David’s neck in a gesture meant to placate one of them, although neither is sure which.

“Whatever you say, David. I’m going to cash up, do you want to head straight to the café for dinner? I know you didn’t get much lunch because of the rush.”

***

“Maybe we met here.”

“Oh my _God_.” David groans, rubbing his hands between his eyes. When he looks up though, Patrick is looking almost pleadingly at him, his lip just slightly pouted enough for David to roll his eyes and give him what he wants. “Fine, perhaps we met when Sebastien Raine came to town.”

Patrick’s eyes almost light up at this suggestion. “I might have come in to give you your business licence, we got to talking, and then he walks in and you kiss me.”

“What? Just like that? I just, lay one on you?”

Patrick shrugs, leaning over to pick up David’s milkshake and take a sip. David raises a scolding eyebrow at him but does nothing to stop him.

“I’d be into it. I was actually this close to asking if you wanted me to pretend to be your boyfriend when you told me he was visiting.” He says, holding his fingers close together to emphasise his point.

“Really?”

“Mhm, I would have done the whole shebang as well. Practice kissing, drawn up a contract, called you ‘sweetie’ and ‘baby’ in front of him.”

“I’m not sure if I’m into that or not.” David chews on his chips thoughtfully before shaking his head. “No, I don’t like the idea of him being involved in our getting together. Also, that would definitely have scared you away; you would have freaked out and run for the hills. Literally.”

“I don’t scare that easily, David.”

“I still don’t like that one.”

“Okay, tell me one that you like then.”

He thinks hard for a while, absent-mindedly picking the tomatoes that Patrick won’t eat from the side of his plate and looking around. “Maybe we got set up.” He says slowly. “This town is nosy enough, maybe Ray set us up on a first date.”

“You’re telling me if Ray tried to set you up you would just go along with it?”

“He’s very persuasive. Maybe everyone was involved; everyone that met you in the first couple of weeks. Jocelyn probably, Bob maybe, my Mom? They’d wear me down at some point.”

“I like that one, we would go to Elmdale for pizza, and I’d kiss you outside.”

David snorts.

“What?”

“Honey I cannot imagine any universe where you kiss me first.”

Patrick takes a moment, opening and closing his mouth in indignation before smirking and nodding slightly. “Well, maybe you need to get more imaginative then.”

“Go on then, tell me one where you would kiss me first.”

“Baseball.”

David blinks in surprise, “I’m sorry what?”

“If I hadn’t met you, I probably would have joined the baseball team earlier. You would have gone to the games with Stevie which I know for a fact that you did several times, and we would have met there. It was home turf for me so I would have been more confident, and I would have known you were interested because I’d be wearing my baseball uniform.”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

Patrick looks at him condescendingly, “Baby, your eyes travel when I’m wearing the baseball uniform. It’s pretty hard to miss.”

David grumbles a bit but he’s smiling as he reaches across the table to take Patrick’s hand.

“I know a good thing when I see it.”

***

In bed that evening, they both lie on their backs, breathing heavily, and warm all over from the evening together. Patrick shuffles over soon enough, unable to stay away for long, and wraps himself around David’s right arm, pressing his face into his cheek.

“What are you thinking about?”

“Hmm?” David looks down at his husband, dazed eyes and ruffled hair, and sighs happily. “I was just thinking about how we could have met again.” He says quietly, almost embarrassed.

“How did we meet this time?”

Patrick snuggles down as if waiting for a bedtime story, their skin pressed together familiarly, his hair tickling David’s shoulder.

“We could have met at the supermarket.”

“Why were you at the supermarket?”

“Adelina used to have this vegetable chilli recipe that she would make whenever I had a really bad week. Usually when my parents forgot something like a school performance, or when I had a bad day at school.”

“Hmm?”

“I think- If I hadn’t met you that week at Ray’s then getting my business licence would have been really difficult, so I probably would have ended up craving the chilli and I would have met you there.”

“Where would you have cooked this chilli?” Patrick asks, starting to kiss David’s neck softly; not sexual, but re-assuring, grounding, and familiar. His hot breath makes David tingle and he lets out a soft sigh of content.

“We get to talking, and you invite me to come back to yours when you find out I lived at the motel.”

“Did you just go around telling people you lived at the motel?”

“I probably would have told you; I did tell you the first time we met, remember. Even though you were asking about business address not my address.”

Patrick laughs at that memory, and the vibration travels through David’s body to his spine.

“That was very nice of me to invite you to Ray’s. Would I get any chilli as payment?”

“Mhm, but you would end up making it because I couldn’t cook back then.” David says resolutely.

“I’m sorry, can you cook now?” Patrick asks, sitting up slightly to gage David’s reaction.

“I made pasta three nights ago!”

Patrick says nothing and just curls up by his side. “The town is small; we could have met in lots of places like that. I might hold the café door open one day or walk past you in the street.”

“That wouldn’t have gotten my attention.”

“No, but you always had my attention, David. Maybe after seeing you around for a little while I would come to the Open Mic Night.”

“And who, pray tell, would have forced me to hold the Open Mic Night?”

“Shh, David. It’s all part of the story.” Patrick says, reaching a hand up to hold over David’s mouth. He makes a small squeak but allows it, as Patrick continues. “I would have sung you a song to get your attention, something sweet, and then I would have asked you out afterwards.”

“Well, let’s be thankful that didn’t actually happen. The singing was embarrassing enough when we were already dating, but a stranger singing to you? Incorrect.”

They both laugh for a while, wrapped in each other’s arms. Eventually, they have to leave the bed to clean up and shower, but soon enough they are settled back under the sheets, facing each other.

“Patrick?” David whispers, as his husbands breathing evens out.

“Hmm?”

“Which way- Which way is your favourite?”

“What do you mean?”

“What was your favourite way we could have met?”

Patrick blinks his eyes open and frowns. “Oh, David. I don’t care how we met. No matter what, we would have found each other, and we would have fallen in love. There is no other option for me.”

“You really think that?”

“I know that. Nothing would have kept me away from you, David. We’re right where we were meant to be.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! 
> 
> I had considered doing some more meet-cutes in this series, and I have no doubt that I will do some separately at some point, but I also believe that you can have too much of one thing, and it felt like the right time to tie these all together in a nice bow and finish. 
> 
> Thank you to everyone who has stuck with them and enjoyed them; I will still consider looking back through and maybe adding some chapters to some of the more popular ones but nothing is in the works yet. 
> 
> Let me know what you thought and which ones were your favourite in the comments!


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